George Bernard Shaw's use of ridicule as a means of audience adaptation in his speeches to America

Scholars have recognized that George Bernard Shaw had an unusual method of speaking to an audience. This study explores his method by limiting the area of research to two speeches delivered to Americans and focusing on ridicule as a means of audience adaptation. Shaw believed that all he had to do was hold the Americans up to the ridicule of the rest of the world in order to gain their interest, consideration, and devotion. Using this belief as a basis, the study attempts to discover how ridicule served as a means of audience adaptation. In this discovery process, the effectiveness of the audience adaptation was of primary concern. Ridicule as a means of audience adaptation has not been a subject of discussion for rhetorical theorists. By discovering the nature of ridicule as a rhetorical device and the functions of audience adaptation as recommended by contemporary speech scholars, criteria are formulated by which the speeches are analyzed. Scholars from the seventeenth century to the present have made contributions to an understanding of ridicule. These contributions serve as bases on which the study postulates a definition of ridicule. Ridicule refers to a form of satire which criticizes persons, actions, or institutions by making them the objects of contemptuous laughter by deriding, mocking, or taunting as it aims to Influence thought or action. Contemporary speech scholars provide a definition of audience adaptation which presents the following criteria by which the speeches are analyzed: Did Shaw analyze his audience? Did the ridicule serve as a means to create goodwill? Did the ridicule serve as a means to gain Interest? Did the ridicule serve as a means to make the speech clear? Did the ridicule serve as a means to make the thesis of the speech acceptable? Did the ridicule serve as a means to link propositions with values? Did the ridicule serve as a means to make the speaker believable and convincing? Before attempting to ascertain the answers to these questions, the study presents a discussion of the essential background material that a critic must possess as a prerequisite to a critical analysis of speeches. The background material includes a discussion of the speaker, audience, and occasion. Shaw delivered his first speech to America, entitled "Look, You Boob!" in 1931 by radio. When Shaw visited the United States in 1933 for the first and only time, he delivered his second speech, "The Political Madhouse in America and Nearer Home," to the Academy of Political Science. An examination of these speeches reveals that ridicule served as a means to gain the interest and attention of the audience; to promote clarity; to make the thesis of the speech more acceptable; to link propositions with values by attempting to replace those values; and to reflect the speaker"s personality. Shaw did not use ridicule as a means to create goodwill. The latter can be explained by his desire to irritate his audience rather than to conciliate them. The manner in which Shaw used ridicule to serve these ends indicates his lack of adherence to the principles of persuasion as recommended by rhetorical theorists. This rhetorical heresy can be explained by his desire to irritate, shock, or Jolt his audience into seeing a need for a change. The ridicule served as a means of audience adaptation when placed into perspective with his persuasive goal.